Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Happy Feelings: 11/11/01 - 11/11/09

Hello all,

I'll hope you'll indulge me with a bit of a personal mix.

It's November 2001: I've finished my undergraduate degree and I'm working in a shop flogging Japanese antiques, dreaming about being elsewhere and not quite managing to actualise one of several plans for becoming the human being I'd prefer to say I was.

It was coming up to my twenty-second birthday, and, well, I was depressed, buried under the wake of the September 11th attacks, the predictable responses, the warmongering, the paranoid-schizoid rants about 'them', the CIA operations in Afghanistan already underway... ...all I knew was that the next decade was going to be hijacked by the worst possible interests involved in the stupidest possible conflict... I wasn't disappointed. And meanwhile, I just wasn't able to get my shit together in mean ol' Melbourne... it was so strange to be overtaken by large events while day-to-day life seemed crushed by the banality of working in retail. I spent the lead up to Christmas driving my car to the crowded staff carpark nearly a kilometre away from the shop where I worked with people I hated in a shopping mall that gave me mild panic attacks. Boo hoo, I know...

My two consolations at the time were love and music; I compiled 'Happy Feelings' both as a way of trying to get myself out of the funk with the funk (recalling George Clinton's aphorism: 'Funk doesn't just move, it re-moves') as well as reflect some of the songs that had soundtracked the process of falling in love which had occurred in the year preceding. Without love and music, I would have been lost. Without love and music, I would be lost.

I worked my arse off getting the track selection and programming right on this mix, which went through several versions in the early days of November, but I think it was worth it - well, you tell me. But I think this one holds up, both as a personal document and as a mix in its own right for anyone who's feeling partially buried under the sometime concrete of existence.

11/11 is a significant date, too. Armistice Day, the anniversary of the creation of Sesame St, silent SSG Yuri's birthday, as well as the anniversary of the death of my dear friend Manabu's mother. It's also just after the fall of the wall, as well as, maybe, the quiet grave of rave culture ('89-'01).

Please NB - I have not published the tracklist here, and probably won't, as there are a few big names that might track I down. This version of the mix was made by taking a WAV of the CD direct from a player (which was then transformed to 320 kbps mp3). The old CD-R struggles at points, and you get a few nasty wee digi-pops along the way... but then again, this is integral to the artefact.

Unless the September 11th attacks had a direct impact on your personal life I cant see why you would let it get to you. Personally, it had nothing to do with me so I wouldnt have got too hung up over it other than feel some remorse for the innocent people that died.

@ jason: you still aren't quite getting it, i'm not hosting it, we are hosting - pete and me. mnml ssgs is a 2 man team, pete and myself. more of the posts have come from me, but most of the more substantive pieces have come from pete. also in terms of direction, planning and vision for ssgs, it is very much a 50-50 partnership. pete and i are in daily contact about ssg stuff. hope that clarifies things.

Cheers, for the mix and the story. Just for context for us Melbourne folk - what shopping mall you talking about? Where did you live at the time? ;)

@Anonymous. The 9/11 events might have meant nothing to you, but for others - they did. The events themselves were nothing less than a global neuro-electric explosion - shocking consensus reality with hitherto unknown realms of uncertainty and confusion. The world opened for me in a flash of possibility, when they happened. 9/11 is all my birthday, increasing the seeming significance of the events for me.

@ robert: my birthday is 12th september. was a very surreal day 12/9/01... for me, at least, what hit me about 9/11 was not the event/act itself, but what it symbolised and what it forshadowed. i had a very bad feeling it would lead to exactly the kind of fucked up over-reaction it brought out of the U.S. (mis)led by the bush administration.

*Lightbulb moment!* Clearly function on one night's sleep meant to count for three has an effect on understanding things. I feel a right bloody fool now :/

As for the mix...it's a grower! I wasn't expecting this at all, but there is some amazing stuff. Bit of blues, funk, jazz, soul, and all in between. I've had a miserable day, but this really made me happy!

(BTW, what on earth is that image supposed to represent? Some sort of earthquake?)

and i have to say, i really like the concept behind this mix and this post. a nice reminder of how music takes on meaning through context and memory. certain tracks take you to certain moments and memories. for me, that's one of the most beautiful and special things about music - the way you create your own history with it and through it.

Very late comment but I had listened to this about a week ago and spent a very nice hour or so pretending to do work and not. I've been thinking this a lot lately but made me think again, there is a lot of really nice music out there, electronic or not. I'm curious. Perhaps it's time I actively branched out.

And just so y'all know - 11/11 1869 was the date of the signing of the Aboriginal Protection Act - the government policy that led directly to the Stolen Generation and related heinous crimes of humanity http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aboriginal_Protection_Act_1869